Guest Post: Character Interview by Alice Gaines and Contest for Mating Season

Alice Gaines here. Instead of introducing myself today, I thought we could have a chat with the heroine of my Cabin Fever novella, Mating Season. Professor Gayle Richards has taken time off her research to let us get to know a little bit about her and how she seduced and fell in love with Professor Nolan Hersch.

Alice: Hi, Gayle. Thanks for talking to us.

Gayle: My pleasure.

Alice: Tell us a little bit about you.

Gayle: I grew up as a brainy kid, the kind boys and later men usually overlook. That bothered me as a teenager, but later on, it proved helpful because my colleagues — mostly men — paid more attention to my ideas than the fact that I was a woman. They considered me more or less one of the guys. Unfortunately, that meant they also felt free to say the most ridiculous things about women and sexual behavior while I was within earshot.

Alice: Your research is about the mating behavior of elk, isn’t it?

Gayle: Right, and elk behave in ways that reinforce human males’ silliest fantasies of how human females ought to behave.

Alice: How so?

Gayle: The males have harems, with the biggest and healthiest males collecting the most mates. It’s a macho guy’s wet dream, and the fact that the elk’s mating strategy has nothing to do with human behavior doesn’t slow Mr. Macho down in the least.

Alice: You don’t often think of researchers and college professors as macho, do you?

Gayle: Believe me, college professors have the largest egos on the planet. They all imagine themselves Indiana Jones, and if they’ve been in their position long enough, they will have gathered a fan club of followers who convince them they’re right about everything.

Alice: Was Nolan Hersch like this when you first met him?

Gayle: Lord have mercy, he was the worst. Crowds of younger male colleagues parted for him like the Red Sea and would hang on his every word, no matter how preposterous. The fact that he was macho and drop-dead gorgeous didn’t help matters.

Alice: What were some of the silliest things he said?

Gayle: You know, the usual stuff. “Society is organized on evolutionary principles, including different roles for men and women. The larger, stronger mail protects and provides. The female nurtures the young.”

Alice: Oh, brother.

Gayle: The two of us fought constantly…at conferences, in the journals. Basically, everywhere we interacted, we got into heated debates. Neither of us realized that the heat behind all the conflict was in large part sexual. We both had wanted each other from the very beginning, even if we wouldn’t admit it to ourselves.

Alice: Sounds hot.

Gayle: And also massively awkward. We were supposed to be enemies. We weren’t supposed to be in desperate lust with each other. So, you can imagine I had no intention of getting stranded in a redwood forest all alone with him.

Alice: How did that happen?

Gayle: There were supposed to be four of us on that research trip: Nolan, me, and two of his graduate students. The students couldn’t make it into the mountains for several days when a road washed out. The tension in the small cabin grew mighty thick mighty quickly. Pretty soon, we were at each other’s throats. And then, he made a big mistake.

Alice: What was that?

Gayle: He claimed that, because of the way we’ve evolved, the male was the more powerfully sexual creature and females only go along to have children. That’s when I had him.

Alice: Had him? How?

Gayle: I demanded he prove just how powerfully sexual he was. In other words, he had to keep up sexually with a female, namely me. You and I both know women have more orgasms than men, and we don’t have refractory periods. We can go forever if we want to, and at that point, I wanted to. The man didn’t stand a chance.

Alice: That’s delicious.

Gayle: I might have felt sorry for the guy except for the fact that the challenge felt so flipping good.

Alice: (laughs) How did he manage?

Gayle: You ought to know. You wrote the story.

Alice: Right. Well, thanks for dropping by.

Gayle: You’re welcome.

Find Ms. Gaines on the web: Blog * Twitter

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Title: Mating Season by Alice Gaines
A Cabin Fever Novella
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon Red
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance
Length: 100 pages

Summary:

Being stuck together in a redwood forest can really bring your inner animal out . . .

The last thing Gayle Richards wanted was to spend days alone in a cabin with Nolan Hersch, fellow professor and macho loudmouth. How could she observe the animals’ mating habits alongside a man who made her blood boil…and not just in anger? The only thing more frustrating than Nolan’s opinions on male sexual superiority was how much he made her want to rip his clothes off.

Well, the thin air in the mountains must have gone to Gayle’s head, because she sets up a challenge: three days to prove who’s more insatiable in bed. With Gayle and Nolan making their best efforts to wear each other out, this may just be the sexiest experiment of all.

Read my review of Mating Season HERE and the other books in the Cabin Fever series HERE

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To celebrate her visit here today, Ms. Gaines is giving away an eARC of Mating Season to one lucky commenter. To enter the contest:

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6. Leave a comment on this post by 5 PM Mountain Time Friday August 17th.

It’s that easy! The winner will be selected using random.org. The winner will be announced on Saturday August 18th.